Kerala retained its spot as the healthiest state on the Niti Aayog’s state-wise healthcare rankings while Uttar Pradesh stood at the bottom. Kerala was followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in terms of overall performance in the health sector, according to a Niti Aayog’s report titled ‘Healthy States Progressive India: Report on Rank of States and UTs.

While Gujarat, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh stood at fourth, fifth and sixth spots, the report ranked Haryana, Rajasthan and Jharkhand as the top three states in terms of incremental performance.

The health index is a composite score incorporating 23 health indicators such as neonatal mortality rate, sex ratio at birth, average occupancy for an officer (in months), proportion of vacant health care provider positions in public health facilities etc.

Among the smaller states, Mizoram ranked first in overall performance, while Tripura and Manipur were the top-two states in terms of incremental performance. Sikkim and Arunchal Pradesh had the biggest decrease in overall health index scores.

Among union territories, Chandigarh ranked first in overall performance, while Dadra and Nagar Haveli improved the most.